My WCAG contrast tester failed me on a $40 sign job, but a cheap red gel filter saved the day

I was checking a storefront banner with a contrast app that said 4.6:1 was fine but the old guy running the place squinted at it from the curb and said 'nah that red on gray hurts my eyes' so I pulled out a $5 red gel from my camera bag and suddenly I could see exactly why the numbers were lying, has anyone else had a real-world check that made you ditch the calculator?

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betty_shah4d ago

the numbers were lying" yeah cause they always do with reds. last month i had this menu board where the app said 5.1:1 on a burgundy over cream and it looked fine on my phone but printed it was like reading through dirty sunglasses. ended up holding a piece of red acetate from an old projector set over it and yep, the whole thing turned to mud. the cheap trick that saved me was printing a grayscale version and squinting, that caught way more issues than the calculator ever did. i still run the numbers for clients, but if my eyes say no, they no. trust the squint test, especially for older folks.